I ended up arriving in New Iberia late at night on day 13, so after looking around town, I decided to sleep in my car in the parking lot for my next destination - another plantation named Shadows on the Teche. Next door, there is an artist's studio, and they have a small park on the shore of the Teche River featuring some of their art. When I arrived at night, I decided to take a few pictures of the sculpture, and also took a few more in the morning.
Shadows on the Teche - Scenic Rte#79
Shadows on the Teche is an antebellum plantation built in 1834 on the Teche River by a wealthy sugar cane farmer in the Greek Revival style. Even before setting foot on the grounds, it is quite apparent how the plantation received it's name. Situated on the waterway of the Teche, the lot is covered by a canopy of shady oaks. When you do have the pleasure of meandering about the grounds, you can fully take in the beauty of the large trees, and the simple, but nicely groomed gardens.
Though the interior of the building is beautiful, featuring many of the original furnishings, like many historic buildings, photography was prohibited inside. The visitor center across the street, which is also in a historic building, offers a video on the history of the house and it's owners.
Tobasco Factory/Avery Island - Scenic Rte#79
The Tabasco Factory is located on Avery Island. Originally, all the peppers were grown there, but with the immense growth of the company, though they continue to grow the seeds on Avery Island, the majority of them are sent to South and Central America. When determining the ripeness of the peppers, color is key, and pickers carry a little red stick - le petit bâton rouge, in French, painted exactly the right shade of a perfectly ripe pepper. While they still grow some of the peppers on Avery Island, I didn't see any of them, though they do direct visitors toward the tourist specific areas.
The factory tours are free, and includes a discussion about the history of the company as well as a description of the processes that transform the peppers into one of the world's favorite hot sauces. Also included is a video that supplements the discussion, and a viewing gallery of the bottling/labelling area of the factory. A gift of a couple of small bottles of the original sauce is given to the visitors.
After the tour, I visited the Tabasco Country Store, which features all sorts of Tabasco branded merchandise, as well as a tasting area where most of the tabasco food products are available for tasting, including tabasco all of their sauces, salsas, chili, pickles, and yes, even ice cream. If you are still craving more after sampling their many products as many time as you like, they have a food cart outside where you can buy some of their own cajun dishes.like boudin or crawfish gumbo featuring their signature sauce. I tried the gumbo, but wouldn't bother buying anything from the cart - if you're really hungry, just load up on some more free samples.
Jungle Gardens
The Jungle Gardens of Avery Island were founded by E. A. McIlhenny as a bird sanctuary for snowy white egrets, which became known as Bird City. He also constructed some of the gardens that remain there. From an original flock of 8 egrets that were originally raised and released from the island for migration, it sometimes plays host to thousands, which return to Avery Island to nest.
In addition to the egrets, Jungle Gardens features alligator and other local wildlife, as well as a Chinese garden featuring a 900 year old Buddha made by Chon-Ha-Chin.
Complete Rte#79
Continuing along Scenic Rte#79, toward Lafayette, I drove through St. Martinville, a quaint old town that was home to Henry Longfellow, hoping to visit the Longfellow-Evangeline State Historic Site, but unfortunately arrived 2 minutes after they closed.
KOA Lafayette/Fezzo's
I decided to forgo the other points of interest along the route, and headed for it's final destination, Lafayette. After pitching my tent at the KOA campground in Lafayette, I asked the office staff if they knew where I might be able to find a restaurant that served nutria, a large rodent that I'd seen Andrew Zimmern eat on a Bizzare Foods episode when he was in Louisiana (I had asked about it while near New Orleans, but the locals told me if anyone served it, it would be in Lafayette).
After seeing the disgust on their faces at the prospect of eating one, and their exhaustive attempts at finding a place that offered it (turns out there was a restaurant that used to serve it, which the office staff was nice enough to call for me, but they had removed it from their menu). I decided to go to dinner at Fezzo's, a local place they recommended to enjoy the more common flavors of Cajun country, where I ordered the Fezzo's Cajun Trio, consisting of Seafood Gumbo, Crawfish Bisque, and their Etouffeé.
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